Going into Saturday, the Dartmouth men's team (11-6, 2-4 Ivy) held the No. 7 rank but still needed to win both of its matches to secure a berth in the CSA Championships tournament.
The Big Green did so in convincing fashion, beat both of its opponents, 9-0.
Dartmouth began the day by dominating Brown (3-8, 0-6 Ivy). None of the nine matches went to the maximum five games, and four matches were decided in the minimum three.
The Big Green's next match was against the Jumbos (10-11) and Dartmouth again took a shutout victory.
"Tufts is a good team and they work really hard," head coach Hansi Wiens said. "We are just on a different level than them right now."
The Dartmouth men won eight of the nine matches in just three games. Only No. 1 Chris Hanson '13 faced any significant resistance, but still won 3-1.
The team will now look ahead to this weekend, when it will travel to New Haven, Conn., to try to improve its national ranking.
"We don't have much of a chance of beating Yale, but we'll have a good shot against Cornell [University], Harvard [University] and [University of] Western Ontario," Wiens said.
The Big Green hopes to climb as high as No. 5 in the nation, according to Wiens.
After defeating the University of Pennsylvania on Feb. 7, the Big Green now sits in seventh because it has done better than No. 8 Western Ontario against several mutual opponents.
The women's match looked close on paper the Big Green (4-8, 1-5 Ivy) entered the weekend ranked No. 9 in the country by the College Squash Association while the Bears (4-8, 0-6 Ivy) held the No. 10 spot.
At the beginning of the season, Dartmouth defeated Brown 7-2 at the Ivy League Scrimmages, so the Big Green had a great deal of confidence going into this match, co-captain Elizabeth Weintraub '10 said.
"We knew they were a pretty good team, but we thought we had a good chance," she said.
Every member of Dartmouth's top seven won her match, including No. 3 Rebecca Lau '13. Lau's win closed out the match and served as a late birthday present she turned 18 the day before.
"[Lau] worked really hard and pulled out a big win," co-captain Libbey Brown '10 said. "The whole team was really proud of her."
Earlier this season, the women's team suffered a season-changing setback when it lost 5-4 to Williams College, currently No. 8. The loss cemented the Big Green in the No. 9 position.
Only the top eight teams nationally compete for the Howe Cup. Dartmouth will compete in a separate tournament consisting of teams No. 9-16.
"We get the chance to compete against other top teams," Weintraub said. "There's a cup, but it's not the Howe Cup, which is disappointing."
The Big Green's toughest competition at the tournament will be the Bears. Dartmouth has a good chance to win the B bracket, Libbey Brown said.
The women have a full two weeks to prepare for their postseason tournament, but they will continue to practice hard, she added.
"We'll even have captain-led practices while the coaches are away this weekend," Brown said.
The women's tournament will be held at Yale University from Feb. 26-28, while the men's CSA Championships also at Yale will run Feb. 1921.
